Gentle
by Red River
Summary: It had to end this way. That's what Jack said. But I can't believe that." After the death of Reese, Teal'c goes to find Daniel. Episode tag to The Menace.


A/N: I don't think anyone liked the place that The Menace ended. In my case, I just wanted a follow-up scene where a friend was there for Daniel, and I chose Teal'c. This is what I like to imagine after the screen fades to black.

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**Gentle - The Menace Tag**

The replicators were destroyed. In the long hallway outside the gate room, Teal'c straightened from his crouch and dropped the borrowed Tau'ri weapon back to his side, stepping cautiously out into the intersection he had been defending. The floor shimmered in all directions with the replicator chips, a river of tiny metallic bones that clicked under Teal'c's boots as he headed for the gate room. The sound of weapons fire had stopped—in its aftermath all was strangely silent, save for a single alarm still blaring overhead. Then Colonel O'Neill's voice crackled over the radio, calling for a sweep of the base as the man himself stepped through the hole cut in the gate room door and moved in Teal'c's direction. Teal'c walked to meet him.

"O'Neill. Where is Daniel Jackson?" he asked.

O'Neill's face contorted, his cheekbones rising to his narrowed eyes. Then his features returned to their calm, if grim, expression.

"Grieving," Jack replied, pushing past Teal'c and down the hallway. Teal'c watched long enough to see his commanding officer kick at a concentration of replicator chips, sending them shattering before him. Then he turned and continued his trek toward the gate room, unsettled.

Once he climbed through the door, it was clear that the fight below the Stargate had been brief. There was no damage to the walls, as in the corridors, though the same shatter of silver pieces covered the concrete floor. There was only one figure in the room, and it was the one he sought, kneeling on the other side of the gate ramp next to the body of the artificial life form.

Teal'c paused. "Daniel Jackson," he said.

When he received no response, the Jaffa crossed the room to his teammate's side. Closer, he could see that Daniel was cradling his left arm in his lap, and that he had removed his glasses, red eyes that were usually a clear blue staring down at the fallen robot. The skin around his eyes was pinched, drawing out in stark relief the dark circles that so often shadowed his face. Teal'c set his weapon on the slant of the ramp.

"Are you injured?" he asked.

Daniel pressed his lips together, then exhaled hard. "No. Not seriously."

"Perhaps it would be best to allow Doctor Frasier to make that assessment," Teal'c suggested. He did not push, however, when Daniel failed to rise. He had known sorrow long enough to know that it was not always easily let go.

"It had to end this way," Daniel said, after a moment of silence. Teal'c raised an eyebrow, though the man was not looking at him. Daniel tapped his glasses against his knee. "That's what Jack said. I had to know it would end this way. But I can't… I can't believe that." Daniel looked up at him, and Teal'c returned the stare in his red-rimmed eyes, watching SG-1's talented archaeologist as his lips trembled. "I can't believe that was the only way. In order for us to do what we do, there has to be the possibility that it can end differently. I have to believe in the possibility that it can end differently. Otherwise, I… I don't know why I'm doing this." Daniel set his glasses down and rubbed his eyes with his right hand.

Teal'c watched him for a moment, studying the worn, tight lines of his face, the face of a man he had hurt so badly and owed so much. Then he bent into a crouch, his movement pulling Daniel's eyes up once again.

"I, too, believe in that possibility, Daniel Jackson," he said. "I believe in it because I have seen you find a different way time after time. As you will do again."

A ghost of a smile crossed the archaeologist's lips. Teal'c hoped it was the right kind of smile. The Tau'ri, he had learned, had more than one use for that expression. Then he stood and extended his hand, palm up.

"Come. I will escort you to the infirmary."

Daniel put his glasses back on, but still he hesitated, his eyes caught on the face of the girl who lay so silently beside him. He reached out with his good hand to touch her hair. "I don't want to leave her," he said, glancing up at Teal'c. "With my arm, I can't pick her up, but—I don't want to leave her."

Teal'c considered the body as well. "Then I will carry her," he replied.

The robot was light—lighter than he had expected, or remembered from carrying her through the Stargate initially. She seemed somehow fragile now, though machine, as if she had lost something substantial when she was shot. Teal'c lifted her into his arms, the artificial limbs bending to accommodate her position, her skin still warm on his though she had stopped functioning. Daniel Jackson rose as well, brushing his hands against his shirt.

"Be gentle," he said, resting a hand on Teal'c's shoulder.

Teal'c considered reminding his friend that the life form called Reese was no more, that she had never truly been human or perhaps even truly alive. In the end he did not. He simply inclined his head and began to walk. And although it was the girl he carried, he felt, through the hand on his arm, that perhaps he was supporting Daniel Jackson, too, and he walked gently for both of them.


End file.
